Household economic condition

The regional situation highlights how southern Italy and the Islands are at a sharp disadvantage, with a percentage of relative poor households in 2014 which was nearly double the national average. In the South and Islands area, households in absolute poverty accounted for 8.6 percent (half of which in the Centre and North). The most serious situations with regard to relative poverty were observed among resident households in Calabria and Basilicata where nearly a third of households are poor, while Trentino-Alto Adige showed the lowest values.

The average anual household income is characterised by considerable differences at the territorial level: in 2013 the autonomous province of Bolzano/Bozen showed the highest average annual household income, 17,500 euros higher than in Molise, the region with the lowest values. In Sicilia there was a high income concentration with a Gini index equal to 0.365. The most equal income distribution was registered in Valle d'Aosta and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, with an average income very close to, though slightly higher than the national average. During the past year Basilicata ranked among the first ten regions with the most equal distribution; among regions in the North, Liguria showed th highest income concentration, similarly to Calabria.

In 2014 members of materially deprived households were over one million in Sicilia and Campania (26 and 18.7 percent of 2014 resident population respectively). The lowest values were registered in Valle d'Aosta (9.5 percent, about 12,000 persons) and Molise (8.9 percent, over 28,000 persons). The South and Islands with 19.9 percent and over 4 million persons recorded values higher than in the whole Centre and North area (7.2 percent, nearly 3 million persons).

Though showing lower values than in the North, the South and Islands and the Centre were the geographical areas with the highest increase in the share of persons who declared to be more satisfied for their economic situation in 2015 than in the previous year.